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You’ve got to laugh. No, you must. Chavez, addressing the UN last week urges the assembled heads of government to read Bertie Ahern’s P.S. I Owe You.

Chavez said at the beginning of his speech: I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book to read it. Bertie Ahern is one of Ireland’s, indeed the World’s, greatest shysters. The details in this book tell us about a coming disaster for the Irish Government.

Credit where credit is due for this. I got the Bertie book from Semper Idem and the Chavez photo with Celia Ahern’s book slapped on top of Hegemony and Survival from Joseph McManus. This is filched material, good and proper.

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A group of distraught Lebanese people gathered at the beach near the US embassy in North Beirut today to wave their goodbyes to US citizens being evacuated . As the last of the relieved American men, women and children were helped on to the landing craft that was to ferry them to the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Nashville some of the Lebanese onlookers rolled out banners saying: ‘Really, really sorry to see you go’ and ‘Well that’s it, now we’re fucked’.

As the F16s scored the clear blue Lebanese sky with jet trails they could just hear, underneath the thunderous crack of bomb exploded masonry, a small child’s voice calling to the speeding landing craft ‘come back soon’.

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The New York Times can be so prosaic at times. In linguistic terms at least they are the polar opposite to Bush. Here’s how they report the news that in Bush’s opinion ‘What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit’.

“President Bush urged tartly that Mr. Annan telephone President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a key sponsor of Hezbollah, “and make something happen.” In Russia for a Group of 8 summit meeting, Mr. Bush expressed his views to Mr. Blair, using a vulgarity that was caught by an open microphone.”

And maybe Annan replied with astringency, ‘go do it yourself’.

Last night on Newnight, the Israeli interior minister Avi Dichter, explained perfectly why Israel feels it has the right to act unilaterally with regard to Lebanon: “In this region, unfortunately, we don’t have superpowers, so, we have to act like the so called superpowers”.

He must be referring to that superpower template: Bomb the shit of them. Invade. Destroy infrastructure more thoroughly. Watch it descend into civil war. Leave.

In the same report Dichter said that Israel won’t take Iran’s nuclear program out. That will be left to the real superpowers. Awesome.

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This booming Irish economy will just not stop. It’s unrelenting, even when challenged by forces that normally slow economic growth such as increased inflation and rising interest rates and the sharp rises in the price of gas and oil. It expands ever more in the face of world turmoil and a wobbly stock market, never mind the continuing uncertainty of the US economy.

It’s like some benevolent monster that heedlessly crashes through Irish cities and towns, sweeping up people, buildings and cars only to let them down again gently and in better condition. The cars are newer and more expensive and the houses are smarter and now have architecturally inventive extensions. The people, relieved at not being crushed in its economic fist call back to the monster ‘Thanks booming Irish economy’, before re-adjusting their new clothing and move on.

And all the while the helicopters of economic rectitude piloted by sceptical central bankers and economists whirl around the head of the monster with their gun barrels aimed at it’s forehead, ready to cut it down to size should it suddenly turn nasty, as they think it inevitably will.

The monster economy though, always gets a warm reception from members of the Irish government. They say that it is its friend, its handler and its chaperone. Without their work in the late 80s and early 90s there is no way that it have come to these shores in the first place.

But the monster needs sustenance and at the moment its favourite grub is the continuing, expert defying construction boom and the hordes of Irish people living out the dream with their credit cards.

You can’t ignore exports though, which is calcium for the bones of the monster economy. According to CSO figures for May to June exports are up, which is just as well, as they were down in the first quarter. Also manufacturing is down, and there’s other slipperiness on the road.

But can the monster continue on his happy rampage for much longer, or will the titanium wire mesh of escalating inflation, oil prices and war ensnare his burgeoning girt and bring him crashing to the ground? I don’t know. I’m not an economist; I’m just a guilty blogger with a tendency to indulge my love of verbosity and nonsense.

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